This thesis examines the process of welfare policy-making in Quebec with respect to single mothers and their children. Historically, traditional notions of the role of women in society and the distinction between "deserving" and "undeserving" poor have inhibited adequate social assistance for single mothers. Chapter 1 examines the 1937 Needy Mother's Assistance Act, the first state assistance program for single mothers in Quebec. Chapter 2 discusses the ideological basis for present-day welfare policy making. The liberal feminist commitment to gender neutrality and acceptance of the marketplace economic model have abetted recent attacks on the Motherwork norm in welfare policy and thus reinforced existing disadvantages of single mothers. Chapter 3 examines the Quebec welfare policy-making process embodied in the 1987 position paper Towards an Income Security Policy and subsequent parliamentary commission hearings. The Return to School Program for single parents, and other provisions, with their renewed emphasis on the marketplace and their attack on the Tender Years Presumption, left single mothers effectively worse off under the new Income Security Act.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61157 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Russell, Regena Kaye |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001277279, proquestno: AAIMM74790, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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